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Lab 5 Essay

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Name: Darren Tennant Date: ________________________

Student Exploration: Rabbit Population by Season

Vocabulary: carrying capacity, density-dependent limiting factor, density-independent limiting factor, limiting factor, population, population density

Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)

1. Suppose you had a pet rabbit. What would the rabbit need to stay alive and healthy? Pet rabbits need food, fresh water, a clean living space, and shelter from the elements in order to stay alive and healthy.

2. A female rabbit can give birth to over 40 baby rabbits a year. Suppose all of her offspring survived and reproduced, all of their offspring survived and reproduced, and so on. If that happened, in only eight …show more content…

Density-dependent limiting factors include predation, competition, and contagious diseases

2. Predict: How do you think the amount of land available will affect the rabbit population?

3. Experiment: Use the Gizmo to find the carrying capacity with Ample, Moderate, and Little land. List the carrying capacities below.

Ample: 400 Moderate: 300 Little: 100 4. Analyze: How did the amount of space available to the rabbits affect how many individuals the environment could support? As the amount of space decreased, so did the number of rabbits the environment could support.

5. Infer: Why do you think limiting a population’s space decreases the carrying capacity?
As the amount of available land decreases, vital resources such as food, water, and living space will decrease as well.

6. Challenge yourself: Other than space, what might be another density-dependent limiting factor? Explain. A contagious disease would be a density-dependent limiting factor.

Activity C:

Density-independent limiting factors
Get the Gizmo ready:
Click Reset.
On the SIMULATION pane, select Ample for the amount of LAND available.

Introduction: Not all limiting factors are related to a population’s density. Density-independent limiting factors affect a population regardless of its size and density.

Question: How do density-independent limiting factors affect how a population grows?

1. Think about it: What do you think some

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